General Phillipus serves as the protector of Queen Hippolyta and leader of the Amazon military. She has proved her loyalty time and time again, and has earned Hippolyta’s complete trust. She had also been given the task of training Hippolyta’s daughter, Diana, who would later become Wonder Woman. After Hippolyta’s death, Phillipus became Chancellor of Themyscira and took over while the princess remained in the United States.
Most recently, when Wonder Woman’s world was altered, Philippus remained the captain of the Amazons and Wonder Woman’s bodyguard.
She is one of the few Amazons who is depicted as being of other than Caucasian descent.
Origin
Philippus is one of the Amazons that stayed with Queen Hippolyta after Hippolyta and her sister Antiope split after the Down fall with Heracles and the Olympian gods.
Philippus was constantly at odds with Hippolyta’s personal bodyguards known as The Circle: Alkyone, Myrto, Charis, and Philomela. While Hippolyta saw their devotion as endearing, Philippus saw through their insanity and gave them little respect. They in turn showed the same hostility toward Philippus. When Hippolyta was given her daughter Diana as a gift from the gods Philippus openly loved the new Princess as did most of the Amazons on the island. She could see though that the child’s presence greatly disturbed the Queen’s bodyguards and took it upon herself to watch them at all times. When Philippus suspected Alkyone was going to kill Diana while Hippolyta slept, she attempted to stop them beforehand but was overwhelmed by them instead. When she regained her physical composure Philippus called for the royal guard and had them imprison Hippolyta’s bodyguards forever.
Diana
Philippus took an active role in the raising of the Princess. Over the years she helped Hippolyta teach Diana the ways of the Amazons. When Diana grew to an age where she used her gods given powers too off-handedly it was Philippus who went to Hippolyta to ask if she could teach Diana the lesson of humility. She arranged for a series of physical tests for Diana. In one situation she had a group of masked Amazons ambush Diana. When Diana used her powers to defeat the attackers soundly instead of more gently disable them Philippus had Diana remove the masks from the unconscious victims. Diana was horrified to discover that the attackers were in fact Diana’s most cherished Amazon “mothers”. Philippus then arranged for a large boulder to roll toward a group of unaware Amazons. When Diana went to hold back the boulder with her strength Philippus shot Diana in the leg with an arrow. Both these situations taught Diana to use her mind instead of her fists when confronted with a dilemma.
In the 1980s Steve Trevor, the son of Diana Rockwell Trevor, crash landed on Themyscira. Resentful at the presence of a man on the island due to her previous rape and slavery at the hands of Herakles’ men thousands of years prior, Philippus was openly vocal about wanting Steve killed. Hippolyta felt otherwise and called for a Contest to have the most skilled Amazon escort the man back to his homeland. A disguised Diana became the Contest winner, which caused heartache to both Hippolyta and Philippus. As the last trial of the Contest, Philippus used Diana Rockwell Trevor’s hand gun on Princess Diana to see if she was skilled enough to deflect the bullets. The Princess was able to deflect each one and went into Man’s World with Steve.
Diana returned to the island on several occasions. During one visit the Olympian god Zeus attempted to rape Diana. When Hippolyta defied the Olympian Philippus advised the Queen not to put the rest of the island at risk. For defying the gods Diana was ordered to go into Doom’s Doorway to defeat the creatures there on her way to an ultimate truth. Even though no one was allowed to aid Diana on this mission Hippolyta defied the gods again and attempted to enter behind her. With tears in her eyes Philippus begged Hippolyta not to enter. Hippolyta refused causing Philippus to tell her that her heart was breaking as she felt obligated to stop her even though she felt anguish in battling someone she loved so dearly. Hippolyta defeated Philippus and aided Diana on her mission anyway. The two later forgave each other.
Major Story Arcs
New Ruler
Hippolyta received visions during this period that Wonder Woman would die. Because of this she had Philippus arrange for a new contest for the title of Wonder Woman. Philippus was instructed to place deadfalls along the contest route in order to slow down Diana so that others might have a chance at winning. Philippus was appalled at Hippolyta’s wishes but followed her Queen’s orders. Because of these actions the Bana Amazon Artemis won the title to be the new Wonder Woman.
Diana had a huge falling out with her mother and left the island in anger. Because of this Hippolyta fell into depression and went mildly insane. Philippus took a more active role in overseeing the island because of this. Later, when Hippolyta discovered her plotting caused the death of Artemis her shame grew to the point where she felt she couldn’t lead her people anymore. Hippolyta officially gave rule of Themyscira over to Philippus and banished herself in a small one person-sized boat. Philippus took her rule seriously but later admitted to Diana that she was more comfortable guiding the Amazon armies at war time than she did the day-to-day rule of an entire nation. When Diana refused to take over rule of the island Philippus reluctantly continued to serve as regent Queen.
Queen Philippus
Hippolytareturned to Themyscira and took back her crown. Civil war then broke out between both island tribes due to the fluctuating rule and growing tensions. In order to end the war Diana and Hippolyta denounced their crowns and gave over the island to Philippus and a resurrected Artemis to act as co-rulers. Philippus was given the title of Chancellor and Archon Eponymous, whereas Artemis was given the title of Polemarch. It is explained that Archon Eponymous equates to the Civic Office of a Presidential title, whereas the position of Polemarch translates to War Leader, similar to the position of Commander-In-Chief. During their official rule they opened the island to outworlders, both on Earth and alien worlds. When the alien being Imperiex invaded Earth during the Our Worlds at War storyline the Amazons joined in the battle which lead to Hippolyta’s death. This devastated Philippus who took greater ferocity in ending the battle.
Diana stayed on as the island’s Ambassador. Because of the Goddess Hera a large tsunami was close to landing on America’s shores. It was stopped by Wonder Woman but the event caused the U.S. to suspect the Amazons to have ill will towards them. The U.S. President, Jonathan Vincent Horne, had Naval battleships position themselves around Themyscira in defense. Wishing to ease tensions, Philippus, Artemis and Diana met with the U.S. President. He agreed to remove the battleships if the Amazons agreed to transfer blue prints on how to create their own Purple Ray. Believing the U.S. would use the Purple Ray as a weapon, the Amazons gave a firm “no” in response. Because of this political tensions remained between the two nations.
Amazons Attack
The witch Circe later entered the Amazons’ protected dimension and revived Queen Hippolyta from death. Circe informed the Amazons that Diana was being illegally detained by the U.S. government and tortured until she gave them the secrets of the Purple Ray. Because of this, the Amazons agreed to give Hippolyta her royal title back, and followed her instructions to invade Washington, D.C. which brought about the events of Amazons Attack. Artemis and Philippus were assigned to oversee the battle, but soon lost faith in Hippolyta when they discovered some of her actions against Man’s World proved to be less honorable. Due to their failure to follow-through in stopping Hippolyta during the war, a disguised Granny Goodness cursed all of the Amazons by erasing their memories and scattering them across the globe with false personas.
With the return of the Olympian gods, Zeus revives the Amazon’s memories several months after their memory wipes and has them return to Themyscira. With the creation of the Gargareans, Zeus had these new male Amazons live on both the island of Thalarion and Themyscira. Their leader Achilles was given rule over both his people and the original Amazons. To add insult to injury Achilles chose Philippus’ old rival Alkyone to become his Queen. This infuriated Philippus who continued to refer to Hippolyta as her Queen. Once the Amazon Artemis returned to the island she helped to organize a coup against the mad Queen Alkyone. Joined by Achilles and his people, the coup was successful and Hippolyta was re-crowned as Queen of the Amazons.
Odyssey
Phillipus served as Diana’s guardian, but was killed after a battle with Cernunnos.
The Legend of Wonder Woman
The amazon named Alcippe was revealed to be Phillipus, who had changed her name after stealing her fellow amazon, Penthesilea‘s, body back from Achilles, who had killed her in battle. A young Diana begged Alcippe to train her in battle, fearing that some sort of evil had overtaken Paradise Island. Alcippe reluctantly agreed, and trained Diana in secret for several years.
Amazon Family
Queen Hippolyta, ruler of Themyscira.
Princess Diana, Wonder Woman
Artemis, of Bana-Mighdall, Bana warrior, former co-ruler of Paradise Island and former Wonder Woman.
Donna Troy, the first Wonder Girl and member of the Titans of Myth, Queen Hippolyta’s adopted daughter.
Cassandra Sandsmark, the second Wonder Girl, daughter of Zeus.
Nubia, is Wonder Woman’s “black sister” Queen Hippolyta’s daughter.
The Olympian, Achilles Warkiller became the King of the Amazons, later gives Queen Hippolyta back the throne.
Steve Trevor, love interest to Wonder Woman, first man on Themyscira and honorary Amazon.
The Amazons, of Themyscira.
Personal Data
- Height: 5’7″
- Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
- Eyes: Brown
- Hair: Black
Powers and Abilities
Phillipus possesses the standard abilities of the Amazons, she is immortal and possesses great superhuman physical strength, speed, durability, healing, and enhanced senses.
Phillipus is around 3,000 years old and has been a warrior for most of her life. She has nearly unparalleled combat training.
Power
Immortality, Superhuman durability.
Abilities
Master in high levels of hand-to-hand combat, expertise in a wide array of weapons. Master of all forms of Greek combat, both ancient & modern.
Strength
Superhuman, She is able to lift 10 tons.
Weaknesses
Somewhat vulnerable to extremely toxic poisons and tranquilizers. Piercing weapons and energy blasts cause minor damage. Her amazon heritage allows her to heal at an amazing rate, and since becoming immortal, her durability has heightened more so.
Other Media
Animation
- Justice League ( JLA ) (2001-2004)
Justice League (JLA) (2001-2004) Philippus was depicted in Justice League Episode “Paradise Lost”.